1. Technical Field
The present disclosure is directed to the provision of light at an oral injection site and, more particularly, to an automated lighting system adapted for use with syringes.
2. Description of the Related Art
In some health care fields, it is sometimes necessary to perform fluid injections, irrigations, and withdrawals in locations that are dimly lit. In particular, dentists frequently perform anesthetic injections near the back of a patient's mouth. Because of the small opening of the mouth, it can be difficult to see an injection site inside the mouth. The space constraints of a patient's mouth also make it difficult to align an external light source to the injection site.
One proposed solution has been to create a syringe that utilizes a light source at the needle end of the syringe in order to allow for better illumination of an injection site. Some of these syringe designs include light sources that are located remotely from the syringe, but use fiber optics to channel the light to a distal end of the syringe. Other proposed solutions have seen the light source built into the syringe, generally near the distal end of the syringe.
However, these syringes fail to provide a medical practitioner with a practical means for illuminating an injection site. In nearly all medical fields sterilization and hygiene is an extremely important aspect of all procedures, especially injection or irrigation. In addition, a practitioner may have several tasks to carry out in order to properly perform the injection, and these tasks may prevent them from operating or focusing on additional devices. A practitioner therefore may not have the ability or time to control electronics or other additional devices while using the syringe. In addition, most of these prior designs cannot be sterilized without requiring disassembly and then reassembly prior to the next use. Moreover, portable sources of power, such as batteries, require partial disassembly to replace the batteries.
What is needed is an apparatus that can provide illumination of injection sites without burdening the practitioner with additional tasks or devices to operate, that provides automation in its use, can be easily sterilized, and enables quick removal and replacement of the battery.